Life has been busy! I haven’t posted since October, skipping November altogether… it’s the longest I’ve gone since starting this blog. Without further ado, here are a few brief updates from the last several weeks before any more time passes. Christmas time is here Dublin is in full-on Christmas mode. The street lights went up in mid-November, and the festive season has...
Happy Halloween / Samhain blessings! Samhain (“SAH-win”) is the ancient Gaelic festival marking the ending of summer and beginning of winter. It that starts at sunset on Oct 31 and ends at sunset the following day, Nov 1. Daylight savings time ended for Europe this past weekend, so it definitely feels like a shift in seasons with sunset before 5:00pm now. However, the weather has been...
The long Easter Weekend started off well. My neighbour Irene and I left Easter cards and treats for each other, and she dressed up the perennial skeleton that stands guard outside her “garden” gate in some seasonal attire. The weather continued to be warm during the day, but it’s still dipping into the 30s-40s / single digits C at night. My neighbour’s skeleton in Easter...
Spring has arrived right on cue for Easter. It’s been much warmer this week, with highs in the low 60s / upper 10s C. There have been some rainy days but today there are large patches of blue in the sky. I’m sitting in St. Stephens Green wearing a short sleeve shirt, the first time since autumn. I worked in the morning, although the firm was officially closed and left it up to employees as to...
The beginning of February brought some wet and windy weather, and also marks St. Brigid’s Day / Gaelic festival of Imbolc. A summary from Wikipedia: “Imbolc / St. Brigid’s Day is a Gaelic traditional festival. It marks the beginning of spring, and for Christians it is the feast day of St. Brigid, Ireland’s matron saint. The holiday begins on the evening of 1st February and ends...
The rest of my time-off since New Year’s has been quiet. I went on a long walk with some friends on January 1st, and have seen a few other people over the past week. After weeks of mild weather, Ireland is finally getting some truly cold winter weather with lows falling below freezing at night. It’s still mild compared to many other places, but much colder than it ever got in San...
Ireland has been experiencing a record number of new daily COVID-19 cases over the last few days. Yesterday’s tally came to a mind-blowing 20,554, although due to limited testing capacity, the true number could be closer to 30,000. I’ve been in close contact with two people who have come down with cold/flu symptoms this week — first, there was S. (with whom I spent Christmas) who...
I’ve been intentionally offline for the past few days, other than for brief scans of the news headlines and weather forecast. Some Christmas catch-ups…. On the 23rd of December, I invited my friend CJ over for a pre-Christmas dinner — prime rib roast, scalloped potatoes, creamed spinach, and cornbread muffins. The inspiration came from the Christmas Eve dinners out I had with my friend Adam at...
This past week has been even more stressful and hectic at work, due to a culmination of multiple deadlines over the past few months. I’ve been putting in extra hours on some evenings to stay on track. Thankfully by the end of the week I finally felt I had caught my breath somewhat, having ticked off at least a couple large projects from my list. I’ll be working through December 23rd, then the...
It’s been another long and stressful work week. I’ve been cooped up in the apartment more than usual, in part because of Storm Barra that hit Ireland with rain and gale force winds Tuesday-Thursday. Schools were closed, and non-critical medical appointments were canceled. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, although thousands of homes were without power in Co. Cork for awhile. Storm Barra...